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In the depths of winter, the Arctic Team student corps conducted an expedition in the Mordovian State Nature Reserve, one of Russia’s oldest specially protected natural areas created to preserve the Middle Volga forest ecosystems. It was a week-long immersion in the life of the reserve, combining practical assistance with bioresearch.

The students were accommodated at the reserve’s central station, where they underwent mandatory training and then began their activities. One of their first tasks was to clear the path to the feeding ground for bison, which had been blocked by fallen trees and deep snowdrifts. The expedition participants had to use snowmobiles to clear a path through the debris. In addition, the students helped with maintenance work, dismantling old buildings, and clearing snow from the grounds. Of great interest to them was Lynx Day, a holiday dedicated to the birthday of the reserve’s symbol, the lynx.

“It was an end-to-end field experience for our students, its spectrum ranging from manual work to direct participation in scientific research,” said Zinaida Kamysheva, group leader and employee of ����Vlog��ý MIREA. “Seeing how lynxes and bison are counted and understanding the efforts that go into preserving the fragile world of the reserve is an invaluable experience. The students returned not only with new skills, but also with a sense of personal involvement in a great cause.”

The group included students from various universities, including ����Vlog��ý MIREA, MAI, RUDN, and MPGU, which made the expedition a truly inter-university platform for sharing experiences. This is the Arctic Team’s fourth expedition of to the reserve, and the organizers plan to hold the next one as early as next summer.

A key part of the expedition was helping with the reserve’s herbarium (HMNR), which has been collected since its founding in 1936. The students were involved in systematizing the materials and the painstaking work of sewing dried plants onto herbarium sheets for permanent storage. This allowed them to partake in a living scientific tradition, contributing to the preservation of a botanical collection of global significance.

“For the students, working with the herbarium is a dialogue with the history of science,” said Yelena Yershkova, deputy director for scientific work at the Mordovia Nature Reserve. “Holding a plant collected almost a century ago and realizing that now your hands are helping to preserve this memory for future research is an unusual feeling.”

As part of their scientific immersion, the young men and women learned about local plant species, such as bladderwort, a carnivorous aquatic plant with sophisticated suction traps.

Familiarizing themselves with local history and nature in between field trips, the students visited museums on the reserve’s territory. State inspector Kira Arzhanova gave them a tour of the Museum of Nature, which has existed since the reserve was founded and stores zoological collections. The students walked through four sections — “Fauna,” “Insects,” “Flora,” and “Fish, Amphibians, Reptiles” — revealing the diversity of the animal world of Mordovia’s only reserve.

The students were particularly impressed by the recently opened immersive art space “Dark Forest.” That is an area without traditional stands with inscriptions; it is a multimedia setting that recreates the atmosphere of a night forest. In a small hall, the group sat around an improvised campfire, listening to the rustling, howling of predators, and cries of birds — sounds that can take the breath away from city dwellers.

“The expedition to the Mordovian Reserve was a great experience in terms of teamwork to preserve the country’s natural heritage,” comments vice-rector Igor Tarasov. “It proved that modern students are ready to lend a hand in protecting and studying Russia’s nature preserves.”

The Arctic Team corps is a large-scale inter-university project that brings together 116 universities from 53 regions of Russia. Its goal is to get young people involved in research and expeditions, help preserve natural and cultural heritage, and develop domestic and international educational tourism. In the last year alone, the corps members organized about 100 expeditions.